The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine book cover

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Audio CD – Unabridged, March 15, 2010

Price
$14.45
Publisher
Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1442300057
Dimensions
5 x 1.2 x 5.88 inches
Weight
8.3 ounces

Description

From the Artist Michael Lewis

Features & Highlights

  • Featuring an Exclusive Audio Interview with Michael Lewis
  • When the crash of the U.S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine, and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking. The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages?Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestselling Liar’s Poker. Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the ever-rising real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely—really unlikely—heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times.
  • Michael Lewis, “is the finest storyteller of our generation.”—
  • Malcolm Gladwell

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(9.6K)
★★★★
25%
(4K)
★★★
15%
(2.4K)
★★
7%
(1.1K)
-7%
(-1115)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Like potato chips, you can't just listen to "The Big Short" audio CD's one time! No way! One of the best gifts ever!

I was somewhat disappointed when I received the Father's Day gift my wife gave me only to reluctantly load the CD's into my car CD player for a long road trip that same week. Two hours into my journey I stopped to call my wife to say....."This is the best gift ever!" OK, my review. Jesse Boggs, the reader, delivers Michael Lewis' "The Big Short" in a most fascinating and thoroughly entertaining manner. I am HOOKED on Michael Lewis books, and have read others, "Liars Poker", "Moneyball", "Boomerang" but I like "The Big Short" the best. Why? You get an inside look on the outrageous and insanity of the subprime mortgage crisis, credit default swaps, CD0's, etc. along with the added entertainment of several key characters and their particular insight and wherewithal to have enough guts to place their bets against an entire industry of mortgage bonds. Never thought this subject matter could possibly be entertaining, but it is. Trust me; you can't just listen to the audio CD's one time, like you can't just eat one potato chip.
3 people found this helpful
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Don't get the Audio CD!!! Unlistanable!!!

The guy that reads the book on the audio cd is impossible to listen to. It sounds like he has macaroni and cheeese in his mouth! That is my only way to describe it. It is gross. Pretty good book though.
3 people found this helpful
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great book

Read this book and you will understand the 2007-2010 depression in the world.
I have read it several times. Great read
2 people found this helpful
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Anecdotal, but among the most helpful of insights on the crash

Michael Lewis does a great job of humanizing a handful of the players involved in the sub prime "industry," and in doing so gives a real feel for how things developed, how incentives were horribly misaligned and much of what went wrong at a very micro level. Regulators are basically not mentioned at all, which is a bit of a shortcoming of the book, but, in the end its a great story and its hard to criticize it for not including things that weren't a part of that story.
2 people found this helpful
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The truth rather than TV spin

Loved the book and wonder why people named in the book haven't been been subpoenaed to testify before congress. Tired seeing the people who screwed it and sold out their clients testify "it's not our fault" infront of the same government people who watched it happen.
2 people found this helpful
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timely

fascinating reading, helps explain the current GoldmanSachs/ Paulson controversy. Complicated CDO's and Credit default swaps explained in entertaining style. Highly recommended.
2 people found this helpful
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A Must

A must read or in audio book.
1 people found this helpful
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this is a great audio-book. Anything Michael Lewis writes is a "home-run"

OMG...this is a great audio-book. Anything Michael Lewis writes is a "home-run".
1 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

Great listen, gives sucha great insight to the finacial fallout on Wall Street in 2008.
1 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

Liked this audiobook.
1 people found this helpful